People have a basic need to communicate and interact with each other. In the modern world, this need is often met using electronic networking systems.
An example of such a system is a game application running on a server, or on a local device connected to a server. The application may be simple or complex, for example, it may define virtual beings, places, and things. Users may access the application via a suitable network, e.g. a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Global Area Network (GAN) such as the Internet, using computers or other electronic access devices. The application allows users to interact, via their respective access devices, with the virtual beings, places, and things, as well as with the other users. The application also includes the capability for each particular user to define a character or representation of himself or herself, known as an “avatar”. The particular avatar, usually in the form of a 2-dimensional or pseudo 3-dimensional image or icon, is presented to other users who encounter such particular user in the application, in order to represent or identify the particular user to the others. “Identify” in this regard means to associate a particular avatar with a particular user for purposes of the game application, even though the real-world identity of the user may remain unknown to the other users.
In order to establish a user-specific avatar, each user may use his or her access device to select from a menu of available avatar characteristics provided by the game application. The application then generates an avatar for that particular user from the selected avatar characteristics, and thereafter uses that user-specific avatar in connection with that user.
In this regard, it is known to use templates in the creation of avatars. With these templates, the avatar can be divided into different parts such as hair, face, hands, upper body, lower body, and feet. The user selects a body part and gets a list of different options for that part, for example, all available different haircuts. Korean patent publication KR20020070754 is an example of a document relating to the use of templates for creating avatars and changing their appearance.
As such multi-user or multi-participant games become more widespread, new ways of interacting become desirable. Participation in games, shared applications, and other interactive technologies are expanding beyond small numbers of users, and existing manners for creating avatars and other personifications, though convenient for dealing with individuals, are not so convenient for dealing with groups. Current avatar creation methodologies, for example, fail to adequately empower groups and their members to control group-related aspects of their avatars and the avatars of other users.
The inventors have developed methods, devices, and systems that address these and other problems of the prior art, and facilitate defining and otherwise working with and utilizing avatars for multi-participant networked applications.